An interesting thing happened last month here in Lancaster County. The day was September 11, and an apparently patriotic elderly gentleman went into Good’s Store looking to purchase a few new flags to adorn his lawn—as a kind of “9-11” memorial. When he couldn’t find any flags in the store, he asked one of the sales clerks why they didn’t have any flags. He didn’t like the answer! In a statement to the Lancaster newspaper, the man reported:

“After looking for some time, I inquired as to where they (US Flags) were kept. The clerk and then the manager’s answer astounded me. I was told, ‘… we don’t sell those here and we never will’. ‘You won’t find THOSE here ...’ the little girl at the register said as she wrinkled her nose. I was confused, so I pressed further and asked why. I was told firmly by the manager ... ‘We are a conservative Christian store and we don’t take sides; having American flags does that.’

If you were robbed more times than you have fingers, what would you do if you finally had a chance to visit your robbers?

I looked straight into the lead robber’s eyes. His gaze didn’t flinch. “I want you to know that I love you and forgive you.”

Did he understand why I was there? What would he do if he got out of prison, now that he knew I knew who he was?

About a month before, three robbers had held up a bus in broad daylight just outside of Siuna (about 100 kilometers east of Waslala, Nicaragua). After releasing the bus, the robbers had changed their clothes, hidden their guns in their backpacks, and nonchalantly caught a ride to Siuna on a truck. They thought no one would recognize them. They were from faraway Waslala. But a boy from the robbed bus caught a ride on the same truck and recognized the robbers. Once they arrived at Siuna, the boy ran to the police station and reported it. The police caught the guys, who still had the stolen money on them.

Is Christ the Rock of your salvation? In I Corinthians 10 Paul calls Christ a Spiritual Rock. And in Palms 95:1 David calls the Lord the Rock of his salvation. God often uses similitude or allegories to help us to remember things of importance. Christ is our sacrificial lamb, His word is seed for the sower, our sword is the Bible, our faith is our shield, and on and on. I believe He does this to help us to remember, to help it stick in our minds.

In our lives we brush shoulders with the world almost every day—a world that is lost. A world that, in almost every aspect of its culture and existence, defies God, and works against His holy will. This “spirit” of the world is not only consistently doing this to Him, but also seeks to distract, divert, and ultimately destroy the Christian.

 

The nineteenth century witnessed the greatest advance the Christian church had ever known. Missions, education and evangelism flourished and prospered. Great names emerged: Livingstone, Spurgeon, Booth, Finney, and Brooks.